New Year Nails!

French Manicure on natural nails

Gingerbread Men/Reindeer!

I made Gingerbread Men and Reindeers for Christmas, easy to make (Be-ro recipe) and a great treat for children... and adults alike!!!

Gingerbread Men

Turn them upside down and they make great reaindeers!!

Nannan Brooker's Trifle

Hope you all had a great Christmas!

 

I have had a very enjoyable Christmas! I cooked dinner for my boyfriend and his parents yesterday and made a trifle for dessert. It's my Nannan Brooker's recipe, she used to make it when we went to visit when my brother and I were kids. It's a quick and easy recipe but tastes delicious! I've added the recipe to the 'Favourite Recipe' section.

 

Nannan Brooker's Trifle!



 

 



Christmas Nails!

Rice Pudding (Jamie Oliver's recipe)

I made rice pudding for our dessert the other day, I've posted the recipe in the 'Favorite Recipes' section why not take a look!

Leftovers!

After making my mince pies the other day I had some mincemeat leftover, therefore I decided to try and find a recipe to use it up. Here are my Mincemeat Muffins which is a recipe from Aldi's website, they have used a cinnamon cream icing to decorate theirs but since I had some marzipan and icing left from decorating the Christmas cakes yesterday I thought I would use that. I've also made a Mincemeat Sponge as a quick dessert for after our tea tonight, done in the microwave in a matter of minutes!!!

I've added these recipes to the 'Favourite Recipes' section if you fancy having a go!!

Ready for the oven!

  

All done...with added edible glitter for extra Christmas sparkle!

 

 

Christmas Cheer!

Today I have spent the day playing with icing! I have really enjoyed making snowmen, Christmas trees and snowballs for the decorations for two Christmas cakes (made by Sue Rowlston, my boyfriends mum). I used ready to roll marzipan and white icing to cover the fruit cakes, using a apricot jam glaze between the layers to help them stick. I then made the snowmen and tree using regal coloured icing, I've using cocktail sticks to make sure that they stay in place on the cakes.   

Work in progress...

adding the details to the figures.

Do you want to build a snowman?

The finished design!

Home-made Burgers!

My boyfriend lives and works on a croft on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland, he owns his own herd of cattle and recently butchered one of his bulls. Here are some of the burgers we have made and packaged ourselves. We've had burgers for our tea tonight, home-made beats any takeaway any day!

Croft 2a Home-made Burgers (For more info visit: www.croft2a.blogspot.com)

All ready for Christmas!

We've been painting and decorating so we've only just finished putting the Christmas decorations up. It's our first Christmas together and our first real tree. Hope you like the pictures!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



New Section - Favorite Recipes!

I've added a new section where I will be adding my favourite recipes, I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Hey there!

Would love to hear about what you think of the blog up to now, why not leave me a comment! :)

Mince Pies and Coconut Tarts!

    

Feeling Festive!

I love baking!...so I thought I would get myself into the Christmas spirit and make some Mince Pies and Coconut Tarts. I have to confess, that I didn't make the pastry though, I bought JusRol Sweet Shortcrust Pastry and used Robertsons Mincemeat. I made 3 dozen altogether so I've put some in the freezer to get out as and when we want them! Will definitely have a go at making my own pastry next time!

Re-cycled candle holders

Here are my new tea-light candle holders, I used two small jars. They were originally filled with coffee. Once empty I bought half a metre of snowflake ribbon and Gingerbread Men buttons from the local craft shop, I then measured enough ribbon to go around the top of the jars and then sewed the button in place. Simple but effective.... nice and festive!

Pud!

Here's what we had for pudding, Black Forest Gateau (from the Co-Op magazine). Layers of luxurious chocolate sponge with white chocolate cream and black cherries.... Took us 3 days to eat it, shared with 6 people!

     

My first veggie dish!

 

Butternut Squash Casserole with a Christmas Tree Pastry top served with roast potatoes, sprouts and fruity red cabbage.